In the last few minutes of questioning in the defamation trial involving writer E. Jean Carroll on Thursday, Donald J. Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina asked Ms. Carroll about the dress she wore the day she says Mr. Trump raped her decades ago.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is presiding over the civil trial in Manhattan’s Federal District Court, immediately dismissed the jury for the day and then asked Mr. Tacopina what his intentions were with his questions, apparently expecting to make a subject both parties have agreed not to touch – DNA.
Traces of DNA are often used in rape and assault cases to identify an assailant, and Ms. Carroll’s lawyers have said in court documents that the dress in question has such evidence.
Ms. Carroll first asked Mr. Trump in early 2020 to provide a sample of his DNA for comparison. Mr. Trump repeatedly refused.
Nearly three years later, Mr. Tacopina told the court that his client was finally willing to provide a DNA sample under certain conditions. Specifically, Mr. Trump offered his DNA in exchange for an appendix to a lab report Ms. Carroll ordered about genetic material on the dress.
Judge Kaplan called Mr Trump’s offer a delaying tactic, noting in a preliminary ruling that his offer came after a deadline for releasing evidence had already passed. Judge Kaplan also said the two sides had already agreed in a joint order that no DNA experts would be called as witnesses.
The judge also noted that Mr. Trump had had the report in question for three years — with the exception of the missing appendix.
And even if Mr. Trump provided DNA, Judge Kaplan said in his ruling, it might not matter to the trial. “It is possible that the results of further DNA analysis using Mr. Trump’s DNA sample may be totally inconclusive,” he wrote.
As a result, neither side can bring forward DNA evidence at trial, which explains why the judge stopped the proceedings when Mr. Tacopina started asking about the dress on Thursday.
Mr. Tacopina quickly assured the judge that he would not discuss DNA. “I’m actually appalled that you think I would be in violation of the court’s order,” he said.
